Antibodies are drawing attention as pharmaceuticals as they are highly stable in plasma and have few adverse effects. Among them, a number of IgG-type antibody pharmaceuticals are available on the market and many antibody pharmaceuticals are currently under development (Non-Patent Documents 1 and 2). IL-6 is a cytokine involved in various autoimmune diseases, inflammatory diseases, malignant tumors, and so on (Non-Patent Document 3). TOCILIZUMAB, a humanized anti-IL-6 receptor IgG1 antibody, specifically binds to the IL-6 receptor. It is thought that TOCILIZUMAB can be used as a therapeutic agent for IL-6-associated diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, since it neutralizes the biological activity of IL-6 (Patent Documents 1 to 3, and Non-Patent Document 4). TOCILIZUMAB has been approved as a therapeutic agent for Castleman's disease and rheumatoid arthritis in Japan (Non-Patent Document 5).
Humanized antibodies such as TOCILIZUMAB are first-generation antibody pharmaceuticals. Second-generation antibody pharmaceuticals are currently being developed by improving the efficacy, convenience, and cost of first-generation antibody pharmaceuticals. Various technologies that are applicable to second-generation antibody pharmaceuticals are being developed. Technologies for enhancing effector function, antigen-binding ability, pharmacokinetics, and stability, as well as technologies for reducing the risk of immunogenicity have been reported. As methods for enhancing drug efficacy or reducing dosage, technologies that enhance antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxic activity (ADCC activity) or complement-dependent cytotoxic activity (CDC activity) through amino acid substitution in the Fc region of an IgG antibody have been reported (Non-Patent Document 6). Furthermore, affinity maturation has been reported as a technology for enhancing antigen-binding ability or antigen-neutralizing ability (Non-Patent Document 7). This technology enables one to enhance antigen-binding activity by introducing amino acid mutations into the complementarity determining (CDR) region of a variable region or such. The enhancement of antigen-binding ability improves in vitro biological activity or reduces dosage, and furthermore improves in vivo efficacy (Non-Patent Document 8). Currently, clinical trials are being conducted to assess Motavizumab (produced by affinity maturation), which is expected to have a superior efficacy than Palivizumab, a first-generation anti-RSV antibody pharmaceutical (Non-Patent Document 9). An anti-IL-6 receptor antibody with an affinity of about 0.05 nM (i.e., greater affinity than that of TOCILIZUMAB) has been reported (Patent Document 4). However, there is no report describing a human, humanized, or chimeric antibody having an affinity greater than 0.05 nM.
A problem encountered with current antibody pharmaceuticals is the high production cost associated with the administration of extremely large quantities of protein. For example, the dosage of TOCILIZUMAB, a humanized anti-IL-6 receptor IgG1 antibody, has been estimated to be about 8 mg/kg/month by intravenous injection (Non-Patent Document 4). Its preferred form of administration is subcutaneous formulation in chronic autoimmune diseases. In general, it is necessary that subcutaneous formulations are high-concentration formulations. From the perspective of stability or such, the limit for IgG-type antibody formulations is generally about 100 mg/ml (Non-Patent Document 10). Low-cost, convenient second-generation antibody pharmaceuticals that can be administered subcutaneously in longer intervals can be provided by increasing the half-life of an antibody in the plasma to prolong its therapeutic effect and thereby reduce the amount of protein administered, and by conferring the antibody with high stability.
FcRn is closely involved in antibody pharmacokinetics. With regard to differences in the plasma half-life of antibody isotypes, IgG1 and IgG2 are known to have superior plasma half-life than IgG3 and IgG4 (Non-Patent Document 11). As a method for further improving the plasma half-life of IgG1 and IgG2 antibodies which have superior plasma half-lives, substitution of amino acids in the constant region which enhances the binding to FcRn has been reported (Non-Patent Documents 12 and 13). From the viewpoint of immunogenicity, further improvement of the plasma half-life is performed by substituting amino acids preferably in the variable region rather than in the constant region (Patent Document 5). However, there is no report to date on the improvement of the plasma half-life of IL-6 receptor antibodies through alteration of the variable region.
Another important problem encountered in the development of biopharmaceuticals is immunogenicity. In general, the immunogenicity of mouse antibodies is reduced by antibody humanization. It is assumed that immunogenicity risk can be further reduced by using a germline framework sequence as a template in antibody humanization (Non-Patent document 14). However, even Adalimumab, a fully human anti-TNF antibody, showed high-frequency (13% to 17%) immunogenicity, and the therapeutic effect was found to be reduced in patients who showed immunogenicity (Non-Patent documents 15 and 16). T-cell epitopes may be present even in the CDR of human antibodies, and these T-cell epitopes in CDR are a possible cause of immunogenicity. In silico and in vitro methods for predicting T-cell epitopes have been reported (Non-Patent documents 17 and 18). It is assumed that immunogenicity risk can be reduced by removing T-cell epitopes predicted using such methods (Non-Patent document 19).
TOCILIZUMAB, a humanized anti-IL-6 receptor IgG1 antibody, is an IgG1 antibody obtained by humanizing mouse antibody PM1. CDR grafting is carried out using human NEW and REI sequences as template framework for H and L chains, respectively; however, five mouse sequence amino acids are retained in the framework as essential amino acids for maintaining the activity (Non-Patent Document 20). There is no previous report that fully humanizes the remaining mouse sequence in the framework of the humanized antibody TOCILIZUMAB without reducing the activity. Furthermore, the CDR sequence of TOCILIZUMAB is a mouse sequence, and thus, like Adalimumab, it may have T-cell epitopes in the CDR, which may have a potential immunogenicity risk. In clinical trials of TOCILIZUMAB, anti-TOCILIZUMAB antibodies were not detected at the effective dose of 8 mg/kg, but they were observed at the doses of 2 mg/kg and 4 mg/kg (Patent Document 6). These suggest that there is still room for improvement for the immunogenicity of TOCILIZUMAB. However, there has been no report on reducing the immunogenicity risk of TOCILIZUMAB by amino acid substitution.
The isotype of TOCILIZUMAB is IgG1. The isotype difference refers to difference in the constant region sequence. Since the constant region sequence is assumed to have strong influence on the effector function, pharmacokinetics, physical properties, and so on, selection of the constant region sequence is very important for the development of antibody pharmaceuticals (Non-Patent Document 11). In recent years, the safety of antibody pharmaceuticals has become of great importance. Interaction between the antibody Fc portion and Fcγ receptor (effector function) may have caused serious adverse effects in phase-I clinical trials of TGN1412 (Non-Patent Document 21). For antibody pharmaceuticals designed to neutralize the biological activity of an antigen, the binding to Fcγ receptor, which is important for effector functions such as ADCC, is unnecessary. The binding to Fcγ receptor may even be unfavorable from the viewpoint of adverse effects. A method for reducing the binding to Fcγ receptor is to alter the isotype of an IgG antibody from IgG1 to IgG2 or IgG4 (Non-Patent Document 22). IgG2 is more favorable than IgG4 from the viewpoint of pharmacokinetics and Fcγ receptor I binding (Non-Patent Document 11). TOCILIZUMAB is an IL-6 receptor-neutralizing antibody, and its isotype is IgG1. Thus, in view of the potential adverse effects, IgG2 may be a preferred isotype since effector functions such as ADCC are not needed.
Meanwhile, when developing antibody pharmaceuticals, physicochemical properties of the proteins, in particular, homogeneity and stability are very crucial. It has been reported that for the IgG2 isotype, there is significant heterogeneity derived from the disulfide bonds in the hinge region (Non-Patent Document 23). It is not easy and would be more costly to manufacture them as pharmaceutical in large-scale while maintaining the objective substances/related substances related heterogeneity derived from disulfide bonds between productions. Thus, single substances are desirable as much as possible. Furthermore, for heterogeneity of the H-chain C-terminal sequences of an antibody, deletion of C-terminal amino acid lysine residue, and amidation of the C-terminal carboxyl group due to deletion of both of the two C-terminal amino acids, glycine and lysine, have been reported (Non-Patent Document 24). In developing IgG2 isotype antibodies as pharmaceuticals, it is preferable to reduce such heterogeneity and maintain high stability. To produce convenient, stable, high-concentration, subcutaneously-administered formulations, it is preferable that not only the stability is high, but also the plasma half-life is superior to that of IgG1 which is the isotype of TOCILIZUMAB. However, there is no previous report on constant region sequences for antibodies with the IgG2-isotype constant region that have reduced heterogeneity, high stability, and superior plasma half-life than antibodies with the IgG1 isotype constant region.
Prior art documents related to the present invention are shown below: